Sigh Semaphore

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

A folk-tronic ep of political songs, written in the dirge days of the Bush regime, recorded in the wake of the deluge of New Orleans. Comes packaged in a plastic sleeve with a 12 page booklet of lyrics, story and original artwork by Myshkin.
Includes unlimited streaming of Sigh Semaphore
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Recorded and mixed by Sugar Short Wave
at Tectonic Shift, Portland, OR
Mastered by Tony Orlander
at Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR
Produced by Sugar Short Wave & Myshkin
Artwork found / re-created by Myshkin

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MyshkinJoshua Tree, California

Myshkin and an ever-evolving crew of restless gamblers—string, horn, drum, key, and and wave players. Passions range from
tango to electronica, folk-noir to gypsy-swing to modern classical to rocknroll. Literate & spooky. Myshkin mostly plays guitars. When warm, she sings like a shiver down your chakras. Like a heart breaking all wide open. Like one in utter control of uncontrollable things....more

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the first time that i saw your bastard faces
you masters of your master race
there on the television, after your revision
of the manhattan landscape had taken place
i knew you lied, i knew you lied
i knew you knew just what was going on inside
i knew you murdered and deceived
all just to lead us to believe
that you could save us from some evil
but you're it personified i knew you lied

some will find it impossible to hear
over the roar of propaganda and that deafening tone of fear
but the story's slipping out, the whispers turn to shouts
and like me they'll lay awake all night
tha day that it comes clear
they'll know you lied, they'll know you lied
they'll know you took the whole world for a ride
they'll know you murdered and deceived
all just to lead us to believe
that you could save us from some evil
but you're it, personified they'll know you lied

for all your backroom business deals
for all the power that you wield
for all your money in your banks
for all your troops at your command
still nothing will protect you once the facts are all revealed
and we know you lied, we know you lied
as you so like to say there won't be a hole deep enough to hide
we know you lied your way to war
against the protest of the world
how many will you sacrifice so you can play at your empire
we know you lied, we know you lied
we know you took the whole world for a ride
we know you murdered and deceived
all just to lead us to believe
that you could save us from some evil
but you're it, personified

Track Name: Thousand Gallon Hat

Sky above New York
15 aeroplanes
circling through storms
like a tiered wedding cake of waste
we celebrate the union
of bad timing and greedy hands
wedding band kicks up the tune
and the punchbowl is filled by the best man
with a thousand gallons of gas
put on your party hat and dance

Lake Charles Louisiana
Has a beach and big hotels
You can gamble on the water
With a lovely view of hell
It’s the mouth of cancer alley
Oil refineries and chemical plants
Built in the poorest communities
Where they’ll only be too grateful for the chance
To make a thousand gallons of gas
Put on their party hats and dance

Sky above Baghdad
50 aeroplanes
Rain poison on the land
On order of those who live comfortably far away
Takeover and occupation
It’s a story that’s as old as the rule of men
We all see through the lie emancipation
But most of us seem willing to pretend
All for a thousand gallons of gas
We’ll put on our party hats and dance

Underneath a thin skin
She’s as cranky as a woman twice her age
Drained of lubrication
Now every tremble turns into a rage
And her skies are getting thinner
And her balance has been thrown all out of grace
Next man that sticks a flagpole in her
Might just cut the whole thing to the chase
All for a thousand gallons of gas
And she’ll put on her party hat and dance

Track Name: Moonwater

If the moon were full of water
Frozen up into her soil
We’d send up our digging toys
To carve lines into her face
And soon there’d be resorts
And it would be fashionable to go
And the lowest of the low
Would work those water mines in space
And if the world could run on water
Want you can’t hold in your hand
Like what runs through you like sand
You could run through like a fall
Soon there would be wars for water
Like there are now wars for land
Even barren desert sand
Not good for anything at all
Not so very long ago
Starving held the right
To steal enough food
To keep herself alive
But the richer we become
The harder are our hides
Now I can watch thirsty die
Sitting on my well
With the law on my side
Now we’ve gone and auctioned water
What we thought could not be sold
Like a photograph a fingerprint a genetic code
And we’ll find a way to make you pay
But still we can not stop the rain
Maybe that’s the next plan

Track Name: Jenny

The lights go down and the air goes wet
The big headed clowns begin to sweat
And the big haired girls begin to shriek
jenny we love you, jenny you freak
she climbs onstage and it doesn’t look easy
she begins her striptease
first a shoe and then a glove
and then the whole damn coverup

and so reveals a three inch waist
imbedded in it’s steel bar cage
steel ribs are all that hold her up
since her muscles all got liposucked
first one breast and then the other
come unscrewed from their mother
the big headed clowns whistle and cheer
they’re begging jenny for a souvenier
then one leg and then it’s two
and they push closer for abetter view
and the big haired girls begin to swoon
as jenny shakes off an arm and unscrews an ear

the finale of the show the place goes silent
she tugs a chain with her chin that runs to her vagina
and she starts to turn inside out
as the curtain drops and the devout
solicit the crowd for donations
jenny needs just one more more operation
she’s tired of watching the audience writhe
she’s gonna get some of them there pop out eyes

and in the dressing room they crowd and drool
all the big haired girls that made fun of her in school
they love her now since she began
to dismember for the lust of their big headed men
and jenny doesn't say a word as the chatter and gasp
as they screw her back together ans they buckle her straps
she hasn't spoken for years, she still wonders which one
of them big haired girls it was that stole her tongue?

Track Name: Holy Holy

Tear your holy buildings down, you’d do better sitting on the ground
You care more for bricks and mortar than your ma and all her daughters
Holy holy are you feeling holy yet holy holy your plowshares bent into bayonettes

Everybodys got to believe in something so they give you a rope and away you swing
But take a quiet minute and look inside see how you’ve been cheated on that 10 cent ride
Holy holy are you feeling holy still holy holy someone pushing all your buttons for their power thrill

Only taught to memorize now we can’t tell the truth from lies
Trained to run and jump and hide perfect little soldiers for whosever side

Everybody’s got to believe in something the great hereafter of the big brass ring
But you care more for obedience than for love or common sense
Holy holy are you feeling holier holy holy ain’t nobody righteous in a holy war

I’ve felt peace in a Muezin’s call I’ve felt peace in a Christian hall
I’ve felt peace in a grove of trees ain’t no peace in bringing someone to their knees
Holy holy peace is only real when we give more than take
Holy holy that’s what all the radical prophets say – didn’t they?

Track Name: Horses

Hide your horses in the barn
Kings come buying for his armies
The deal he’ll make it isn’t fair
He’ll steal them or he’ll slay them there
Hold on, hold on, long ride till the dawn

Hide your silver beneath the floor
Kings come taxing for his wars
Take from you he’ll take from me
Waste it making misery
Hold on, hold on, long ride till the dawn

Hide your cries and hide your labors
Kings made spies out of your neighbors
A war lords lust is never sated
Is this the world to which we’re fated?
Oh no, hold on, long ride till the dawn

And hide your children cross the border
Kings come shopping for his soldiers
It isn’t much the price he’ll offer
A flag to pretty up their coffin
Hold on, hold on, long ride till the dawn

Track Name: Bywater

It hasn’t rained all summer here in Oregon, now the sky is crying thru the sunshine
Crying diamond tears for you New Orleans, storm has passed by bad news is just arriving
Bodies floating down the Bywater my bodies floating down the Bywater
I feel like a traitor a prodigal daughter and I ain’t ever going home

How can you leave a place that breaks so big and hard
Her tomboy face is smudged with dirt her chest is stuck out like a schoolyard bully
But her shins are shaking in the wind
Here comes another one take her one more round again

When the going gets rough the restless split
That’s what I always done I fear that’s what I always
Will you grab me by the ankle wrap around my thigh
Plant my feet in fertile soil I get that faraway look in my eye

Is is blessed is it the life that never had to leave her village
Never had life given and never had to kill it never had all these choices
Or heard all these voices or had a car or a highway could take her far so far away
We call ourselves wealthy to be footloose and free
But what we are that’s you and me I don’t never ever want to leave
Will you grab me by the ankle wrap around my thigh
Plant my feet in fertile soil I get that faraway look in my
Body is floating down the Bywater my bodies floating down the Bywater
I feel like a traitor a prodigal daughter and I ain’t never going home